Nenana mother and daughter convicted of defrauding elderly neighbor out of her home

Moyle and Williams were convicted of felony scheme to defraud more than $10,000 and felony first-degree theft of more than $25,000. They are scheduled to be sentenced by Superior Court Judge Patricia Haines on June 23 in Fairbanks.

It took the jury around nine hours of deliberation to reach a verdict.

Over the course of the four-day trial, Mae Jensen, Nenana Mayor Joshua Verhagen, retired financial crimes investigator Andrea Jacobson, bookkeeper Stephanie Marchesseault, former Nenana City Clerk Hannah Filardi and property law attorney John Foster Wallace took the stand.

The City of Nenana had not enforced the collection of property taxes through foreclosure for about 30 years when Mayor Joshua Verhagen took office in 2018. Jensen owed approximately $69,000 on her property, which was assessed at $71,000.

Jensen told her neighbor, Williams, and her friend, Moyle, that she wanted to move into the Meda Lord Senior Center and sell her home. Moyle is the director of the Nenana Senior Center.

Moyle and Williams first went to the city office in May 2019 and told city staff about the senior tax exemption, which lowered the back property taxes to $65,000, and a six-year statute of limitations, which meant that the city could not collect property taxes beyond six years.

Moyle and Williams confirmed that summer that the city could not collect the back taxes. In September 2019, Jensen signed her property to Williams in a quitclaim deed for $6,533.67 — the total of the assessed value of the cabin minus the back property taxes.

Williams’ daughter moved into the cabin soon after and began renovations. Law enforcement got involved in October 2019 and launched an investigation into the dispute.

Moyle and Williams were previously convicted in December 2022 in Fairbanks of financially defrauding Jensen in the real estate deal. A judge later overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial after determining that improper character testimony had been introduced in the first case.

Nenana Mayor Joshua Verhagen told the News-Miner Friday that he hopes for healing in the Nenana community.

“I am relieved for Mae, and hope this will prevent similar situations from occurring again,” he said. “I am obviously not happy about the fact that this situation happened in the first place, a situation that was avoidable and unfortunately used to justify taking advantage of others, but do not wish ill on anyone even when they’ve done wrong.”